In British Columbia, the government can take away your home, your car and your cash, without ever charging you with a crime.

Most people in BC are not aware of how easily the government can take away their most valuable possessions.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve ever been charged with a crime. In many cases the government doesn’t need to go to court at all!

The BC Liberals have made it easier and easier for police to profit from seizing private property. This trend is called “policing for profit” and it is very dangerous. Policing for profit corrupts police forces and results in policing priorities being set based on their financial gain.

NO CRIMINAL CHARGES, BUT THEY TAKE YOUR HOUSE

In 2011, the BC government seized two East Vancouver properties worth almost $1 million, because they were used to grow marijuana. The homes’ owner was never charged, and both sides agreed that the homeowner wasn’t even aware that his tenants were growing pot.

First the landlord was victimized by his irresponsible tenants, then he was given a much worse punishment by the government!

If the tenants had been committing rape or murder in their rented home, the landlord would not have lost his property. But because his tenants had a marijuana garden, the government took his houses. Does that seem fair?

In another recent case, BC’s Liberal government seized a $570,000 home from a man caught with 80 small pot plants and the remnants of a larger marijuana garden. Police didn’t bother laying charges for such a small number of plants, but that didn’t stop the Director of Civil Forfeiture from coming in and taking the man’s home.

If the man had been caught committing any other crime, he would have been charged, had a trial and possibly gone to jail. But he would not have faced the loss of his home like this. Why are accused marijuana growers singled out for this special kind of property seizure?

In neither of these cases were the men wealthy, and there was no evidence or suggestion that they had bought their homes with proceeds from the marijuana gardens. The government just took their homes because they can, and because it is easier and more profitable just to seize people’s property then it is to actually charge and convict them through the courts.

EXTREME FINANCIAL PUNISHMENTS

Compare these extreme financial punishments to the small fines received by three companies that caused a massive 250,000 litre residential oil spill in Burnaby in 2011. The companies plead guilty to 21 charges, and received fines of just $150,000 after a public clean-up that cost taxpayers $15 million.

Does having a home marijuana garden really deserve a worse punishment than causing a residential oil spill?

No-one is arguing against the government taking away assets that are proven to be proceeds of crime. That is appropriate and how the legal system is supposed to work. But despite headlines proclaiming that the government has been seizing assets “from criminals,” in most cases there have been no criminal charges at all!

Policing for profit is a dangerous trend that must be stopped.

Taking away the homes and cars of people who have never even been charged with a crime should not be standard practice.

The goal of the BC government’s asset forfeiture team is clearly to get the most money they can out of the people they go after. Last year, a Saanich man was caught with a duffel bag of marijuana in the back of his leased truck. The Civil Forfeiture Office waited for two years until the man had finished paying off the truck and owned it outright, then finally launched proceedings to seize it from him!

GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT

It gets even worse than that. Did you know that the BC Liberals passed a law in 2011, so that now a bureaucrat can seize up to $75,000 of your property without even having to ask permission from a judge?

Under this new law, if the Director of Civil Forfeiture “has reason to believe” that something you own “is an instrument of unlawful activity,” then the government can basically just take it. If you want to get it back you’ll need to hire a lawyer and go to court.

Under all these civil forfeiture laws, there is a “reverse-onus,” which means you are assumed to be guilty, and you need to prove you didn’t break the law in order to get your property back.

All of these provincial forfeiture laws have been passed mainly to seize the homes, cars and assets from suspected marijuana growers. Yet when we ask BC politicians about the much greater revenue to be gained from the fair and equitable taxation of legally regulated marijuana products, they throw up their hands and proclaim that marijuana is a federal issue.

Wouldn’t it be better to properly regulate, tax and control the sale of marijuana, instead of just grabbing the homes and cars of those unlucky enough to get caught in the net?

Wouldn’t that be the sensible thing to do?

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BC can decriminalize marijuana! Find out how and join the campaign at Sensible BC.

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